Pearl River resident and author Mary Beth Keane has written a new book, "Fever," a biofiction on the life of Mary Mallon, also known as Typhoid Mary. / Gannett/(Westchester County, N.Y.) Journal News

by By Karen Croke, (Westchester County, N.Y.) Journal News

by By Karen Croke, (Westchester County, N.Y.) Journal News

When Mary Beth Keane's parents arrived in the United States from Ireland, her father was so overwhelmed by the complexity and chaos at JFK airport - then known as Idelwild - that he decided right then and there that he would not return home.

"When he arrived here from Connemara, he said, 'I better make it here, because I will never find my way back,'" says Keane.

That determination to achieve the American dream, no matter the journey, is the theme of Keane's second novel, Fever, (Scribner) about Typhoid Mary, that will be released March 12.

"When people think about Typhoid Mary, the reaction is usually pretty immediate," says Keane over a cup of coffee in Pearl River, N.Y.'s Muddybrook Cafe, about Mary, whose real name was Mary Mallon. "For the most part - then and now - people say, 'Hey, she is the bad guy.' They didn't even know who she was."

Mary Mallon arrived in America from Ireland at 15 and went to work as a cook, quickly gaining a reputation for her talent at the stove. She also harbored the deadly typhoid bacteria which she passed on, through her cooking, to the families that employed her. Ultimately, she was arrested and held, against her will, in quarantine at New York City's North Brother Island.

Most people quickly dismiss Mallon as the sum total of her shorthand description, "Typhoid Mary," but Keane set out to retell her story, bringing life to a woman who existed solely in the headlines.

Keane's work is an example of biofiction, a blend of fact and, through careful and extensive research, an fictionalized backstory. In Keane's telling, for example, Mary has a boyfriend, and has encounters with her employers, including one lively and telling exchange about a hat.

"I wanted to keep the broad strokes, but fill in the gaps in her life," says Keane, who spent years researching not only Mallon, but typical immigrant life of the time to construct a vivid and compelling backstory for her heroine, and a wonderfully complete picture of life of New York City in the early 20th century.

"I had to make her world and maybe it's not 100 percent truthful, but it's as close as possible," says Keane, who adds that she found Mallon to be a sympathetic figure.

"No one in the beginning really believes that she could have done this, but the authorities basically locked her up; removed her from society," she says. "The fact is, there were many other asymptomatic carriers of typhoid who never faced what Mary faced, who were never incarcerated."

Mallon was released from North Brother Island after three years, but after she returned to cooking, against the terms of her release, she was re-incarcerated and spent 30 years living in a small cottage there until she died.

As Keane discovered, after so many years, all that remained of the life of Mary Mallon were the basic facts of her case. "There was a lot of room to fill in about her life."

She found a book, Stories of Undistinguished Americans, that helped. "It was full of oral histories; people talking about their own lives. It was a treasure," she says. "You could hear a little more of the pettiness in people, not from the point of view of an interviewer or an editor, but from these people themselves."

She says she always knew she would become a writer, from as far back as sixth grade. "I didn't grow up with books, or everyone in my house reading books, but I always loved to write," she says. "My parents always supported me. They said, 'why come to America if you can't do what you want?'"

Keane grew up in Pearl River, graduated from Barnard College and received her Master of Fine Arts degree in fiction from The University of Virginia. Her first novel, The Walking People, (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2009) was selected as an honorable mention in the 2010 selection of the Hemingway Foundation/PEN award. It follows three young characters as they travel from their homes in Ireland to find a new life in America.

It took her 4 1/2 years to write Fever.

"I moved twice and had two babies," she explains. "I had no idea how to do this, be a mother, have a family and be an author. It was a blank page."

Her first son was 3 months old when she started the book, and then she had another child, and eventually as the time passed, she says, "I realized, I better finish this and it better be good."

She also moved from Philadelphia back home to Pearl River, where she now lives next door to her parents. She's juggling lots these days, day care and nap time and firming up the details of her upcoming book tour, which will take her from Illinois to Brooklyn to Brookline, Mass. in just three days.

It's all part of her journey, and like her dad, she never looks back. "If I couldn't do this, I am not sure what I would do."